Modern data systems typically manage a large amount of data. In order to make the large amount of data more manageable, techniques such as deduplication are applied. Deduplication includes removing redundant instances of data so that only a single instance of data is stored.
Modern data systems are also typically spread across physical devices. These physical devices may include controllers, such as the Data Domain DD880 controller provided by EMC Corporation.
Deduplication may be applied across many physical devices, such as multiple DD880 controllers. This allows for a single instance of data to be shared across many physical devices. However, when data from a multi-controller system needs to be moved to another multi-controller system, such as replication, many of the benefits of deduplication are lost.
There is a need, therefore, for an improved method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for processing information.